Fuel cell power plants are well known in the art and are commonly used to produce electrical energy from reducing and oxidizing fluids. Such fuel cell power plants include a cell stack assembly which, in addition to electricity, produces waste heat and product water that require a water management and coolant system. While not in operation, the power plant may be subject to freezing conditions that can cause water in the stack to become frozen. When this occurs starting up the power plant is a more difficult task especially when the power plant is required to started up in a short period of time.
Accordingly, it is the principle object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for enabling rapid start up of a fuel cell power from sub-freezing initial conditions.
The foregoing object is achieved by providing an apparatus and method that includes heating antifreeze in a coolant loop, melting ice in the fuel cell stack sump with the heated antifreeze, using the melted ice as a water source for making steam in a flash vaporizer and feeding a stream containing the steam into the cold cell stack assembly to effect a startup.